Man claimed ‘UAE doesn’t like Turkey’

An air­line pas­sen­ger who shouted that the UAE dis­likes Turkey dur­ing an ar­gu­ment with air­port se­cu­rity of­fi­cers has been jailed for five years.

Abu Dhabi Crim­i­nal Court handed down the sen­tence to the Turk­ish na­tional over the in­ci­dent at the cap­i­tal’s air­port in Au­gust.

The man was also con­victed of re­sist­ing ar­rest and threat­en­ing to harm se­cu­rity of­fi­cers. In ad­di­tion to the sen­tence he was fined Dhs50,000.

The in­ci­dent un­folded when se­cu­rity asked to do a rou­tine se­cu­rity check on him af­ter he landed on a flight from Turkey. The court was told he re­fused to be searched. A pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness, an air­port se­cu­rity By Is­mail Se­bug­wa­woo of­fi­cer who was on duty at the time, told the court the pas­sen­ger was asked to come to the se­cu­rity of­fice.

The of­fi­cer said: “As we were go­ing to the of­fice, the man shouted, ‘I know what the prob­lem is, it’s be­cause I am of Turk­ish na­tion­al­ity’. He also said ‘ The UAE doesn’t like Turk­ish be­cause of po­lit­i­cal rea­sons’.”

The of­fi­cer said the man threat­ened to harm him and other of­fi­cers if they ever vis­ited his coun­try. He de­nied the charges through­out the trial. He will be de­ported on his re­lease.